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18 Nov 2008 : Column 328W—continued
Police: Training
Mr. Ellwood: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what programmes there are for police officers to be posted overseas to help train overseas police forces in (a) secure and (b) insecure environments. [236068]
Mr. Coaker [holding answer 17 November 2008]: UK police officers engage in a wide range of training and other police assistance activities, both short and long term, throughout the world. The environments in which they operate will vary, from stable countries to countries where the UK is contributing to Peace Support Operations, including Iraq and Afghanistan. In these cases, risk assessments will have been carried out prior to deployment and arrangements made to safeguard the officers’ security as far as possible while delivering the assistance.
Police: Wales
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) police community support officers and (b) civilian support officers there were in (i) Vale of Clwyd constituency and (ii) North Wales (A) in 1997 and (B) at the latest date for which figures are available; and what the policing budget was in each area in (1) 1997 and (2) 2007 in real terms. [235559]
Mr. Coaker: The available data for North Wales are given in the following table. Police personnel data are not collected by parliamentary constituency.
The net budget requirement for North Wales Police Authority in 1997-98 was £71.3 million, increasing to £124.8 million in 2007-08. This is a real terms increase of 37.8 per cent.
Resource for the Vale of Clwyd is an operational matter for the chief constable and police authority.
| Police community support officer strength (FTE)( 1) and police staff( 2) strength (FTE)( 1) for North Wales police | ||
| As at 31 March each year | PCSOs( 5) | Staff |
| (1) Total strength is based on full-time equivalent figures that have been rounded to the nearest whole number, because of rounding there may be an apparent discrepancy between these totals and the totals in other tables. (2) Civilian staff have been referred to as police staff since March 2003. Figures exclude traffic wardens, police community support officers and designated officers (s.38). (3) Figures exclude those staff on career breaks or maternity/paternity. (4) Strength figures as at 31 March 2003 onwards include those staff on career breaks or maternity/paternity leave. Therefore these figures are not comparable with those provided for other years in the table. (5) Police community support officers were introduced in statute in 2002, therefore data are not available prior to 2002-03. | ||
UK Border Agency: Lost Property
Mr. Vara: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate her Department has made of the number of case files of asylum and immigration applicants lost by the UK Border Agency or its predecessor bodies in each of the last five years. [235349]
Mr. Woolas: The information is not available in the format requested. The level of UK Border Agency case files not currently shown with a clear location is less than 0.2 per cent. of the Agency’s total holding.
Justice
Bill of Rights
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice when he expects to publish his Green Paper on a British Bill of Rights; and if he will make a statement. [235484]
Mr. Straw: The Government have noted with interest the recent Report of the Joint Committee on Human Rights in relation to a Bill of Rights for the UK and expects to publish a paper on rights and responsibilities shortly.
Civil Service Commission: Payments
Mr. O'Hara: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what arrangements there are for the Civil Service Commission to transfer payments to (a) suppliers and (b) its staff in circumstances where the payment has not been made on the due date. [220884]
Kevin Brennan: I have been asked to reply.
I understand the hon. Member is referring to the Office of the Civil Service Commissioners. The Cabinet Office administers payments in respect of the Office’s suppliers and staff.
The Cabinet Office’s procedures are designed to support its policy to pay undisputed invoices within the terms of the contract; salaries on the due date; and valid staff expenses within five working days.
Compensation: Industrial Diseases
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice when he expects to publish the Government's response to the consultation on pleural plaques; and if he will make a statement. [235485]
Bridget Prentice: The Government's consultation on pleural plaques closed on 1 October, and the responses are currently being analysed. We will seek to publish a response paper outlining the way forward as soon as possible.
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many responses he has received to the consultation on pleural plaques; how many were from (a) trades unions, (b) members of the public and (c) insurers; and if he will make a statement. [235487]
Bridget Prentice: A total of 224 responses were received to the consultation paper. Of these, 125 responses were received from individuals and 30 from the legal profession. 18 responses were received from insurers and defendant organisations. There were 15 responses from trade union bodies, and 12 from Members of Parliament. Seven responses were received from employers and business organisations; four from medical professionals; four from organisations representing asbestos victims; and two from academics. In addition there were responses from a devolved administration; a non departmental public body; a constituency political party; an actuarial body; a charity for education in health and safety; a statutory public body; and a consultancy firm specialising in occupational environmental and public health risks.
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice with reference to the consultation on pleural plaques, how many responses were in favour of (a) the status quo, (b) a compensation scheme and (c) a change in the law to permit damages claims; and if he will make a statement. [235488]
Bridget Prentice: The responses to the questions contained in the consultation paper are currently being analysed. A full summary together with the Government's response will be published as soon as possible.
Courts Service: Costs
Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the cost to the Courts Service of litigants in person was in each year since 1997. [235907]
Bridget Prentice: There are no data held centrally on the costs to Her Majesty’s Courts Service of litigants in person.
Courts: Control Orders
Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what progress has been made on point 8 of the then Prime Minister’s security measures announced on 5 August 2005, on the expansion of court capacity to deal with control orders. [233535]
Bridget Prentice: We monitor the volume of control orders to ensure that we continue to have the capacity to deal with any increase in volumes. My Department has led and managed a Works Programme, which has provided 14 high security courtrooms to deal with terrorist cases at key locations across England and Wales. We keep under review the volume of control orders and our capacity to hear all terrorist cases, particularly those that require a higher level of security in order to ensure that our estate can meet any increased workload in the future. We are satisfied that at present the courts have sufficient capacity and that enough judges have been identified to deal with these Orders.
Departmental Cost Effectiveness
Mr. Maude: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will place in the Library a copy of the recent presentation by Sir Suma Chakrabarti to senior officials in his Department on cost savings across his Department. [233374]
Mr. Straw: I refer the right hon. Member to my reply to the hon. Member for Cambridge (David Howarth) on 17 November 2008, Official Report, column 20W.
Departmental Internet
Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many (a) page hits and (b) visitors his Department’s website received in 2007-08. [235300]
Mr. Malik: The Ministry of Justice website:
was launched on 9 May 2007. Monthly page impressions and visits figures for the year from May 2007 to March 2008 are as follows:
| Page impressions | Visits | |
Departmental Written Questions
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many questions for written answer were tabled to his Department and its predecessor in Session (a) 2002-03, (b) 2003-04, (c) 2004-05, (d) 2005-06, (e) 2006-07 and (f) 2007-08 to date; and how many were (i) answered substantively and (ii) not answered on grounds of disproportionate cost. [235389]
Mr. Wills:
The Ministry of Justice and its predecessor Departments have electronic records since the 2004-05 Session, therefore, the information for 2002-03 and
2003-04 is not available. The following table shows the number of ordinary written and named day Commons questions tabled to my Department and its predecessors from the 2004 Session.
| Session | House of Commons ordinary written and named day questions tabled |
The information requested on how many questions were answered substantively and those that were not answered due to disproportionate costs are not held centrally, however, we are looking to adapt our database so the information is recorded from the new session.
Electoral Register
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what estimate he has made of the proportion of the electorate who have declined to have their details published in the edited version of the electoral register. [236515]
Kevin Brennan: I have been asked to reply.
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated November 2008:
As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your question asking what estimate has been made of the proportion of the electorate who have declined to have their details published in the edited version of the electoral register. (236515)
The latest figures for the number of people who registered to vote in the United Kingdom, for local government and European elections, relate to 1 December 2007. At this date the proportion of the electorate who declined to have their details published in the edited version of the register was 39 per cent.
Islam: Legal Systems
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice when he plans to write to the hon. Member for Wycombe in fulfilment of the commitment given by the Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government on 16 October 2008, Official Report, column 661, on Sharia law. [236986]
Bridget Prentice: I will respond to the hon. Member before the end of November.
Licensing: Television
Mr. Vara: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people have been fined for television licence fee evasion in each of the last five years; and how much was collected in fines in each such year. [235705]
Maria Eagle: The available information is shown in the following table.
| Number of offenders fined and sum of all fines for offences relating to television licence evasion( 1) , 2002 to 2006 | ||
| Number of offenders fined | Sum of fines imposed (£) | |
| (1) The TV licensing provisions of the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1949 were replaced by new provisions in the Communications Act 2003 which came into effect on 1 April 2004. Notes: 1. These data are on the principle offence basis. 2. These figures have been drawn from administrative data systems. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. 3. Following quality checks, data for certain police force areas within corresponding regions are not considered reliable enough for publication. Source: OMS Analytical Services. | ||
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